A step-by-step online tool that enables users to create immersive 3D store experiences through Shopify embedment.
12
user interviews
04
prototypes
32
walk-through tests
26
user flows
Overview
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Ethereal Engine is a browser-based 3D engine that makes high-quality, multiplayer experiences across VR, AR, and the web.
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After its acquisition by Infinite Reality (now Napster), it became the company's flagship product with a bold goal: democratizing the spatial web for small e-commerce businesses, similar to how Squarespace made website creation accessible to everyone.
Product Lineage
The Challenge
52% of users drop off at the Editor Tool, making the Dashboard to Editor transition the largest point of abandonment.
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Business owners found Ethereal Engine's Unity-like editor too complex to use on their own, leaving a major gap between the product's potential and the people it was built to serve.
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Leadership believed that creating a step-by-step e-commerce set up flow would generate more clients.
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The product required Shopify integration alongside Napster's AI agent technology.
Original Editor userflow and drop off rates
Gathering Insights
To understand the product space, I researched Shopify's integration capabilities and various existing merchant onboarding patterns to understand the guardrails and opportunities within that ecosystem. A competitive audit of tools like Squarespace and Shopify's own setup flows helped define what "simple" looked like for non-technical users at scale.
Key Findings
1. Familiar e-commerce patterns reduce perceived complexity of 3D setup.
2. Template-first approaches lower friction for non-technical merchants.
3. No existing tool bridged Shopify stores and 3D experiences.
Design Process
By grounding every decision in user impact, I mapped out our design trajectory with stakeholders across product, engineering, and business, while pulling a cohesive glassmorphism visual language from the Napster 3D Spaces Redesign so users moved between both experiences seamlessly.
Initial sketch of product placement concept
AI Agent Integration
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Midway through, the company rebranded to Napster, which meant integrating the Napster AI agent into an existing setup flow without disrupting the layout.
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Knowing Napster's feature offerings would only grow, I designed a library upfront to organize them, avoiding a full redesign down the line.
2D ➞ 3D Product Conversion
I integrated Rodin, an AI model that converts 2D images into 3D models, making the shopping experience feel native to the space.
Since Rodin charges per conversion, I built a credit system around it: 20 free conversions to start, with the option to purchase more, creating a natural upgrade path within the product.
MVP flow
The final MVP flow delivered a cohesive Web3 Shopify integration that seamlessly fit into Napster's product suite.
Testing and Validation
Grounded in 12 user interviews and 32 walkthrough tests, the design was built on real feedback and refined across 4 prototype iterations, resulting in 26 user flows that made launching a 3D storefront feel effortless.
Results
What i learned from this project
Next Steps
For future iterations, I plan to:
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Conduct a feedback workshop with current clients actively using the product to surface pain points directly from the people in the workflow.
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Run A/B testing across navigation approaches to move beyond assumption and land on patterns backed by real usage data.